For a choir. P-E-T-E-R FON-DA (looking eastwood-ish) doesnt have the same ring to it as Ran-dolph scott! Musicals and 40s films i am a bit iffy. but i usualy know me westerns. i seem to recall the music was fairly low-key and single guitar type. Was there ever a soundtrack? i dont think there was.

For a choir. P-E-T-E-R FON-DA (looking eastwood-ish) doesnt have the same ring to it as Ran-dolph scott! Musicals and 40s films i am a bit iffy. but i usualy know me westerns. i seem to recall the music was fairly low-key and single guitar type. Was there ever a soundtrack? i dont think there was.

There was no LP issued at the time of the film’s 1971 release, but a CD of Bruce Langhorne’s score finally surfaced briefly around 2004 on the Blast First Petite label. It’s now OOP and going for premium prices. THE HIRED HAND was the first film project of musician-composer Bruce Langhorne, who had worked extensively as a studio musician with artists such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez in the 1960s. Langhorne played all the instruments for the film’s score himself.

Writer Alan Sharp’s screenplay was originally submitted to Peter Fonda as an acting vehicle only, to be shot in Italy. Fonda, who had produced, co-written, and acted in the 1969 smash hit EASY RIDER, decided to make his directorial debut with THE HIRED HAND rather than only act in it. After long and complicated negotiations, Fonda and his producing partner, William Hayward, acquired the property for Fonda’s company, The Pando Company, Inc., which had produced EASY RIDER. Universal Pictures executive Ned Tanen was responsible for greenlighting THE HIRED HAND, as well as several other low-budget, largely independent pictures by young directors such as Milos Forman, Monte Hellman, George Lucas, and Dennis Hopper.

Fonda initially considered casting Lee Grant as “Hannah Collings,” but eventually went with Verna Bloom. Fonda wanted Laszlo Kovacs, with whom he worked on EASY RIDER, to serve as the cinematographer. Kovacs was committed to other projects, however, and recommended Vilmos Zsigmond, who had primarily worked on exploitation pictures up to that point. Fonda produced the picture for $820,000 and took nothing up front except for Screen Actors Guild (SAG) minimum. Fonda and Hayward gave up their producing salaries so that they could afford to hire Warren Oates.

Larry Hagman was cast as the sheriff of the town of Calman. His scenes, in which he investigates the self-defense shooting of “Ed Plummer” (Michael McClure) by “Arch” (Warren Oates), were filmed but cut before the picture was released. Fonda then decided to dub the actor playing the Calman bartender, using Hagman’s voice. Hagman’s scenes were restored by NBC for the network’s 1973 television broadcast of the picture, although scenes in which “Harry” (Peter Fonda) and “Arch” confront “Hannah” about her sexuality were not broadcast.

The picture was shot mainly on location in and around Cabezon, NM, although Fonda initially wanted to shoot in Mexico. After he was refused a shooting permit by the Mexican government, Fonda began scouting location sites in New Mexico. The production received a special exemption from the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and SAG to film in New Mexico. The exemption meant that the filmmakers were able to shoot with only a minimal union crew. Early in the production, the chief horse wrangler was killed while leaving the Rio Grande location site and attempting to board a helicopter. Espanola, Alamogordo, and White Sands National Monument in New Mexico were additional location sites. The sequences depicting the town of Calman were the only ones shot in Hollywood, and were filmed on M-G-M’s backlot.

THE HIRED HAND premiered in Des Moines, Iowa on 16 July 1971, and opened in New York on 11 August 1971. The film received mostly negative reviews upon its initial release, with many critics complaining about the film’s stylized visuals and leisurely pace. Los Angeles Times reviewer Charles Champlin summed up his reaction to the picture by stating that “seldom is a movie seen so clearly to have been defeated by its own style.” Numerous reviewers praised the acting of Oates and Verna Bloom, however, with the London Underground Film Critics naming Bloom Best Actress of the year. The British magazine Films and Filming selected the picture as the Best Film of 1971, calling it “a visually stunning and instinctively aware account” of Western life in the 1880s. Despite its popularity in Europe, the picture was released in just 52 theaters in the United States for only 2 weeks, after which it was pulled by Universal and shelved.

In June 1973, writer Harry Joe Brown, Jr. sued Fonda, Hayward, and executive producer Stanley A. Weiss for $250,000. Brown alleged that he had written the screenplay for THE HIRED HAND and that the filmmakers had conspired to induce him to sell his screenplay to Universal for a sum substantially less than fair market value by promising him co-producer credit equal to that of the others. The disposition of the suit has not been determined. It is possible that Harry Joe Brown, Jr. is the "Brown" referred to in the onscreen credit "A Pando Production in Association with Brown, Lifton and Weiss."

After the film’s theatrical release, screenwriter Alan Sharp turned his screenplay into a novel. Fonda and composer Bruce Langhorne collaborated again on Fonda’s next film as a director, the 1973 Pando Company production IDAHO TRANSFER.

In the late 1990s, editor Frank Mazzola was approached by Hamish McAlpine, who wanted to finance the restoration of THE HIRED HAND. Mazzola contacted Universal to determine if the negatives and sound elements of the film still existed and found that Bob O’Neil, who had worked on the picture as an optical lineup man, was now Universal’s executive director of restoration. Supervised by Fonda, Mazzola, Zsigmond, and sound engineer Richard Portman, the restoration and “director’s cut” were also funded by The Sundance Channel and the Film Foundation. Fonda’s cut, which ran a few minutes shorter than the original release, went on to play numerous film festivals, including the 2001 Venice Film Festival and the initial TriBeCa Film Festival in 2002. It also received a limited theatrical release in various art houses between 2001--2003. Although the film was rated GP upon its initial 1971 release, the rating was changed to R for its 2003 DVD release.

interesting stuff Bob. Thanks for all that. And the stuff about the soundtrack.

Dont know what version i saw. Would have been Uk Tv late 70s i guess. Couldnt tell you much about it - i know my expectations were high- ish due to it featuring Warren Oates but i seem to recall i found it slow and ponderous. That said, i was about 16 when i saw it so another i would like to revisit with an adult eye.